ADD Diet

Absent mindedness can be due to a number of things, including hormone imbalance. I got a lot of help from reading the book Feeling Fat Fuzzy or Frazzled? by Shames, MD. You can read reviews and all that on Amazon, or look at their website at www.feelingfff.com.

I know two families (one in Greenville and one in Tarboro) who use the Feingold diet (http://www.feingold.org) and love the results. The diet is based on eliminating products that contain artificial food dyes because they are petroleum based and children and adults can be emotionally sensitive to this. "You are what you eat" rings true more than we realize. Good luck. Kudos to you for trying to find solutions rather than just something to cover up your child's symptoms.

I do not know if your child is inattentive or Hyperactive/Impulsive but I have a blog of information on the inattentive subtype of ADHD. I have written about the diet interventions that scientist have proven help ADD and ADHD. The URL is http://primarilyinattentiveadd.blogspot.com.

Hi D.,
My son was diagnosed with ADD at 7 yrs old. After everything else failed, we opted to medicate. After 3 years we took him off the meds, cut down on sugary foods, make sure he gets more exercise and give him a daily supplement called Cod Liver Oil softgels. You can find them in your local vitamin shop. They do a lot of good for brain function. Good luck finding something right for you.

Try a wheat/gluten free diet. This is not so much as a diet as a life style change. Go online and do some research on "Celiac Disease", "Autism and the gluten free diet" and "ADD and the gluten free diet". Also try to get soy out of the current diet..soy is really bad stuff for most people with any condition.
Good Luck.

My friends with this issue suggest that low/no sugar and low/no wheat gluten diet is a MUST! And, of course, a well-balanced meal will do wonders. Good luck!

Check out The Blood Type Diet (http://www.dadamo.com). And in the meantime, perhaps make lists so that you don't forget stuff?

Hi D.,

I have a friend whose son has ADD. She used the Feingold diet. It helped a little. Are you on a good vitamin? The Omega 3 fish oils will help with focus. I drink an XS energy drink every day. Most people think energy drinks would not help, but the XS has special herbs in it and some caffeine. They have a claim that says they absolutley help ADD. I agree. I don't recommend the drinks on the market because they are high in sugar and don't have nearly the vitamins that the XS has. I am a mom of two girls and I know as moms we have so much going on...I am sure I have a touch of ADD as well. But the drinks really help. You can't buy them in stores, but I can get a sample to you if you are interested. I hope that helps. Good luck....also, one thing that I am learning to do is ...change the way I do things...making lists, and trying to find the right routine that helps. Focus is harder for some than others....I know that all too well.

The gfcf (gluten free casein free) is the one you will hear about a lot. But I think an organic diet as proposed by Andrea at reversingautism.org is better. I have done both as have so many others. ADD and autism are on two ends of the same spectrum. There is a reversingautism yahoo group and facebook page now. Her diet follows the book Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. Good luck!

I've heard great things about the Feingold program. They basically give you list of foods and teach you ones to eat to help eliminate the symptoms and to feel better in general. I know two people who's children (ADHD and Autism) who's had great results from eliminating these "trigger foods".

Hi D.,

Have you ever read the book The Diet Cure? The author is Julia Ross and it is one of the most powerful books I have ever read regarding health. I have been researching for the past 8 years and you are right when you say that so many of the diets out there conflict with each other. I do not have ADD, but was suffering from fatigue, depression & digetive disorders. Her advice has changed my life completely. I hope this helps.

L. S

I am not sure what you read. What we did with my eldest son is figure out what types of food really affected him. For us it was it was sugar,dairy and foods with white processed flour. Store bought bread was a big thing for us. If I gave him a glass of milk that was to much but a little milk on an unsweetened whole grain cereal with a half teaspoon of sugar was okay. We usually had eggs for breakfast with V8 or tomatoe juice for the best results.

A friend of mine homeschooled her children as well and was using the same method. One morning while she was still figuring out what foods affected him, he did really well with listening, learning and study time. His Mom tried to figure food was different that day than before. She went to go make dinner to find that the bottle of Mountain Dew had been opened was about half gone. It was only a 16 ounce bottle, when she confronted her children about who drank it the son had finally admitted that he did it. The first thing she had banned him from was the soda, she thought it would be the culprit but for him having a small glass of Mountain Dew in the morning helped him to stay focused. Too much made things worse but a small amount helped. Good Luck

Hi D. - Unless you are malnourished and if you really have ADD, it is really unlikely that a special diet will help. I'm all for eating healthfully (fruits, veggies, whole grains, lean protein, good fats, etc)but the research on the diets does not support their effectiveness for most kids with ADD (and I say kids because I'm not sure that this HAS been researched with adults). I'm not going to say there aren't some cases out there where this has really helped - but it's probably a good idea to be really cautious. There's not enough research to say what a restricted diet woudl do to your body in the long term and some of the diets really lack important nutrients you need to function. It's also probably a good idea to get a medical check up and a good evaluation with a psychologist or psychiatrist to be sure your symptoms are due to ADD and not something else (like lack of sleep for example, or a thyroid condition, or even anxiety). Often insurance companies will cover part if not all of the evaluation and treatment of ADD.

Here are some websites on diagnosis and treatment of ADD in adults and one on ADD classes. You'll notice that it refers to ADHD - Basically there are three types of ADHD - ADHD Predominantly Inattentive Type (which people call ADD), ADHD Predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive Type (mostly seen in young children), and ADHD Combined Type for people who have both sets of symptoms. If you're more the ADD type as an adult, you don't tend to be as impulsive (doing things or saying things before thinking them through) or as restless.

http://www.webmd.com/add-adhd/guide/adhd-adults?page=2
http://www.help4adhd.org/treatment/guides/WWK9
http://www.addclasses.com/

The most recommended treatments for adult ADD are behavioral and organizational skills coaching and medication. There have been many more studies in the past ten years about medication for adult ADD, and many of the ones used with children are also used with adults with good efficacy. But getting that evaluation I was mentioning is important - if you are also experiencing any symptoms of anxiety or depression, the medication choices may be different for you than if you don't experience those symptoms.

If you need referrals for an evaluation or coaching or any other treatment, feel free to send me a message!

Have you tried Juice Plus? Go to their website and see if they have good results for ADD.

have you talked to your doctor yet? I'm not sure what ADD symptoms you are dealing with besides the absentmindedness. But having had lots of family/friends with ADD and growing up around it my whole life, if absentmindedness is your only symptom, there might be something else going on. ADD isn't really a true absentmindedness. What you are seeing there is too much focus or lack of focus. There is nothing wrong with trying to eat a healthy balanced diet on your own, but before you make any majoy lifestyle changes like limiting yourself to a gluten free diet, I would be evaluated by a doctor first. There are also vitamin supplements you can ask the doctor about too, like things that improve your mental clarity.